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If I were…

January 30, 2016 / adminPeter / 0 Comments

I had a discussion with the family the other day about the relative merits of the phrases “if I were…” and “if I was…”.

The former has perhaps more famous examples:

“If I were a rich man” – Fiddler On The Roof
“If I were a boy” – Beyoncé

The conversation arose because I wrote something like this in a document during the week: “If the system were to be unavailable for any reason then …”

Some web research quickly followed.

This construct is also used when giving advice: “If I were you…”

Technically the “if I were” form is known as the subjunctive. The Miriam-Webster dictionary defines this as follows:

“of, relating to, or constituting a verb form or set of verb forms that represents a denoted act or state not as fact but as contingent or possible or viewed emotionally (as with doubt or desire)”

A good example of the desire usage (again from the Mirriam-Webster website is “I wish it were Friday”. However this is an example where the “I wish it was Friday” would be much more common, certainly here in Ireland.

Some sites claim that there is very little difference between the two forms. Other claim that the subjunctive form should be be used where dealing with something which is hypothetical, or which is known to be untrue.

So since I was dealing with a hypothetical in my document, I guess my use of “were” was the right call.

Worst Analogy Ever

January 30, 2016 / adminPeter / 0 Comments

I’m not a huge fan of analogies.

Sometimes they can be used to help to explain something, and sometimes they can work very well in this context.

Sometimes, however, they are used to back up an argument and this is very dodgy ground. All analogies have limits, and they more they are used, the more these limitations will be exposed. So I am always very dubious about an argument which claims that because such-and-such a thing will happen in the analogous situation, it will therefore happen in the real situation under discussion. I have been at many meetings over the years where analogies were used as weapons to back up a position. Here be dragons, in my opinion.

But they can help in explanations. And they can help in presentations.

I gave a presentation years ago where I tried to explain why you might use one technology to tackle one requirement while also using a different technology to tackle a different requirement. I used the analogy of having different gold clubs in your bag and there being situations where you need a 4-iron and other situations where you need a pitching wedge. I think that analogy worked quite well (although the danger with all analogies is that they may come across of patronising).

I was reminded of all of this yesterday when I was reading an article on the web which included one of the worse analogies I have ever seen (paired, by coincidence, with a golfing analogy).

Here is the piece in question:

Yes, these CRM systems are terrible. As terrible as an automatic rifle given to a child or a nine-iron handed to a monkey. But placed in the right hands, like a soldier or a professional golfer, a CRM system (like the popular ones listed above) can be a powerful tool for growing a company’s profits and increasing its value. So is your CRM system terrible? Or is it you?

The article was written by Gene Marks and appeared on the Forbes website. You can read it here.

Now I don’t have the slightest issue with the idea that a 9-iron in the hands of a great golfer can do marvelous things while the same implement in the hands of a monkey can have very different results.

But I do have an issue with the idea that an “automatic rifle” in the hands of a “soldier” could ever be compared with a system which might be “a powerful tool for growing a company’s profits and increasing its value”.

The best you could ever claim for an automatic rifle, in my opinion, is that it might be considered to be a necessary evil in some circumstances.

Having said all of that, I guess it is possible (although this seems like a stretch) that the author was referring (perhaps even unconsciously) to how often soldiers have been sent off in pursuit of objectives which had as much or more to do with profits and growth than with any higher objectives. Anyone who is familiar with Michael Moore’s documentary film “Fahrenheit 9/11” will be very familiar with this idea.

More about Star Wars

January 10, 2016 / adminPeter / 0 Comments

Before I leave the topic of the new Start Wars movie,a few additional thoughts.

Firstly, I want to pick up the issue of the lack of originality which I mentioned in my recent post.

J.J. Abrams has addressed this issue in an interview. I, for one, cannot accept his explanation. I still think it’s just something akin to laziness. In a similar vein, for years we have been hearing this stuff about how the first movie in a series cannot be great because it needs to deal with the set-up and exposition. It is important to bear in mind that (a) episode 4 was brilliant even though it really was the first and (b) this is episode 7 not episode 1!

Secondly we are seeing a lot about how the movie is breaking box office records. It’s interesting to see that it has a long way to go to catch Episode 4 when you adjust for inflation. And a long way to go to catch Avator when you consider global box office rather than just US box office.

Finally, I am wondering why Supreme Leader Snoke was created using CGI when Abrams talks so much about getting away from green screen etc. Why not just have an actor in make-up?

Brooklyn

January 10, 2016 / adminPeter / 0 Comments

Speaking of Domhnall Gleeson (as I was in my last post), I went to see the movie Brooklyn the other day.

It’s light fare but very good and Domhnall (whom I like a lot) is very good in it, as he always is.

But the star of the show by far is Saoirse Ronan. She is just excellent. She has been nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe and has already won a slew of awards including:

Boston Online Film Critics Association
British Independent Film Awards
Detroit Film Critic Society
Florida Film Critics Circle Awards
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
San Francisco Film Critics Circle
Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards

Fingers crossed for her in the Oscars.

There are also very nice appearances in the movie from Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters.

While the story is fairly light as I mentioned it is scoring 7.8 on IMDB at present which is very respectable. It is quite moving – my wife can certainly attest to its ability to provoke tears!

BTW: I saw Domhnall outside the Browne Thomas store before Christmas and I managed to resist the urge to go up to him to say how much I admire his work!

Here is a video of Kate Winslet talking to Saoirse about the movie:

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

January 9, 2016 / adminPeter / Comments Off

As I have mentioned Harrison Ford in my last two posts, I though I would tackle the subject of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in this one.

As the release date for the sequel grew closer, I couldn’t help getting a little excited. We booked tickets to go and see it during the opening weekend in the same cinema where I saw the original way back in 1977 (the Savoy cinema in Dublin).

Two things made me want to keep a lid on my growing excitement:

The disappointment of episode 6 and then episodes 1-3
The fact that I have never really enjoyed anything by J.J. Abrams (his two “Star Trek” movies were no more than OK).

I’ll start with the good news:

I enjoyed the movie while I was watching it. It is very well executed
I liked the characters Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac)
I liked the way they introduced the characters from the old movies (starting with the Millennium Falcon)
I liked BB-8 (very cleverly done)

The most disappointing thing about the movie BY FAR was that there was no new story! Just a reworking of old stories!

I seem to remember George Lucas lamenting the fact that he had used up his blowing-up-the-death-star idea in the first movie and then he had no new idea so he blew it up again in the third one.

So here we are over 30 years later and Abrams and his team could not come up with a new idea! They just had a much bigger Death Star (and a graphic to show us just how much bigger it was). Pathetic!

And is spite of everything which the rebels achieved in the first 3 movies, there is once again something like an empire, something like an emperor, stormtroopers, and a resistance. How did that happen!

And then they had to rework all that father-son stuff once again. Pathetic!

I guess in hindsight I should have expected some of this: look what Abrams has done with Star Trek after all! But I could not have expected such a lack of fresh thinking.

Some members of the old guard have also been critical:

Lucas criticised the movie for a failure to innovate. He gave examples of “planets” and “Spaceships” specifically (rather than the failure to have a new story!)
Samuel L Jackson had some faint praise for the movie during an interview and said “I think the kids need to go to lightsaber fight school” (the fighting was definitely not as good as in episodes 1-3).

Other things I did not like about the movie included:

Domhnall Gleeson (whom I love as an actor) was wasted as General Hux
Similarly wasted are Max von Sydow and Gwendoline Christie (so good in Game of Thrones)
There were far too many unanswered questions (I read – whether it’s true or not – that Abrams has not answered some of these questions himself – leaving them for the makers of the future movies).

The biggest surprise for me in the movie (and it was a very pleasant one) was recognising Yayan Ruhian and subsequently seeking that Iko Uwais was in the movie too (I did not spot him at the time).

I may be in a minority however in being disappointed by the movie. I have seen some fans raving about the movie. And it has a respectable rating of 8.5 on IMDB (episodes 4 and 5 are only slightly higher at 8.7 and 8.8 respectively while the abysmal episode 6 is only slightly lower at 8.4).

Still it could have been worse – at least there are no kids, no Ewoks, and no Jar Jar Binks!

Here is s shot of Rey from the movie:

Blade Runner

January 9, 2016 / adminPeter / 0 Comments

I mentioned the movie Blade Runner (one of my all time favourites) in a post yesterday.

By coincidence I learned two interesting things relating to the movie today:

Today (8 Jan 2016) was Roy Batty’s (played by Rutger Hauer) “incept date” in the movie! When BR came out in 1982 I guess it seemed somewhat reasonable that we would have robots/androids/replicants by now. Amazing how slow progress has been on robotics since then.
It has been confirmed that Harrison Ford (with the success of the new Star Wars movie) is “the highest-grossing actor of all time at the U.S. box office”. With a current tally of $4.7bn (yes – that is “billion dollars”) he has pushed Samuel L. Jackson into second place. And what makes this even more amazing is that SW is still raking in money, and new Blade Runner and Indiana Jones moves are apparently on the way!

Here is a picture of Ford and Hauer together in BR:

Movie Updates

January 8, 2016 / adminPeter / 2 Comments

There are a number of movies which I am looking forward to, as mentioned in my old blog. This post contains an update about them.

The first is the Blade Runner sequel. We don’t know when this will start filming (never mind having a release date) but we do know that:

Harrison Ford will be in it (probably a fairly small role)
Ridley Scott will be a producer
Ryan Gosling will star
Denis Villeneuve will direct
Hampton Fancher will return to do the script
Sean Young will not be in it

BR is one of my all-time-favourite movies. So I’m pretty excited.

Here is a good article which includes a video where Scott confirms that Deckard is a replicant (Ford is on record as saying that he is not). Since we’re going to see a much older Deckard it seems unlikely that he is!

The second movie which I mentioned previously is the one based on Satori which is an authorised sequel to my favourite book: Shibumi by Trevanian. This is supposed to star for Leonardo DiCaprio. Unfortunately these is no update on this in IMDB.

The third is “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny” which I mentioned in my old blog (the title has changed a little since then). I am including the trailer for this below. The bad news is that there seems to be some pretty dodgy CG work. The good (and surprising to me) news is that the movie will be released on Netflix on the 26th of Feb. So we don’t have to wait much longer!

New Sherlock Homes Story!

January 7, 2016 / adminPeter / 0 Comments

The BBC reports that a new Sherlock Holmes story penned by none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has been uncovered, “more than a hundred years after it was first published”.

Wow!

As a huge fan of these stories I must confess to being very excited when I read this.

I read all of the books in my youth, and I listened to all of the stories again quite recently.

I am also a fan of the two movies with Robert Downey Junior (there is speculation on IMDB that a third movie is on the way). And more recently I have very much enjoyed the TV series with Benedict Cumberbatch (huge fan of his also).

And I mentioned in my previous blog how much I liked the TV series “House M.D.” which was based to some extent on the Holmes concept.

To return to the newly discovered story:

The story itself is available to read here
This article casts doubt on whether or not it was really written by Doyle

Star Trek Continues – New Episode

January 2, 2016 / adminPeter / 1 Comment

I mentioned “Star Trek Continues” in April 2014 in my old blog. At that stage there were only 2 episodes available.

It seems to be going from strength to strength and now there are 5 episodes. The latest (“Divided We Stand”) is the first to be filmed on location.

Full marks to the cast and crew for creating such an excellent tribute to TOS.

Here is a picture of the cast, downloaded from the website:

Back to the Future day

October 21, 2015 / adminPeter / 0 Comments

Today is the 21st of October, 2015. It is the day which Marty McFly went to in the movie “Back to the Future part II”.

The movie was made in 1989, over 25 years ago. How many movies get a day named after them over a quarter of a century later?!

There have been lots of articles over the last few days about the predictions which the movie got right about the future (flat screen TVs, etc.), the things that we don’t have yet (hoverboards, flying cars, self-tying laces, weather control, etc.), and the things they missed completely (the Internet).

I love the first movie, and I love the trilogy. I bought the first movie on DVD years ago and then I bought the trilogy.

I still think this trilogy makes more sense than any other time travel movie (although the “Bill and Ted” movies had some novel ideas).

I had hoped to watch the movie this evening but there just wasn’t time. Maybe tomorrow or at the weekend.

I did watch enough though to get this still from the DVD showing the time when Doc Brown brought Marty and Jennifer to the future to because “something’s gotta be done about your kids”.

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